In early 2019, Royal Caribbean “amplified” its ship Navigator of the Seas to include a tiki bar, a blowdry bar, waterslides and a redesigned pool area, and so much more! Here are a few pictures from my recent three-night cruise on Navigator.

Navigator of the Seas sails 3- and 4-night short cruises from Miami to Nassau and Royal Caribbean’s redesigned island experience Perfect Day at CocoCay. Message me if you’d like to know more or start planning your Navigator cruise!

If you haven’t booked a cruise before, you might be surprised at how booking a cruise differs from other types of travel such as airfare and hotels. For instance:

Although cruise fares fluctuate just like airfares, you can lock in a rate by putting down a deposit. Once you do this, your cruise fare won’t increase – but it can go down! More on that later.

When I book a cruise for my clients, they have between 24 and 72 hours to make the deposit payment. What this means is that you can lock in a rate for your cruise for no charge while you quickly check with traveling companions, work, etc. to make sure that you’ll be able to travel at that time.

Final payments for a cruise are due between 90-120 days before the sail date, depending on the cruise line. Up until that final payment date, however, your agent (that’s me!) can call and have the cruise re-priced, which could lead to a lower final cost to you.

The correct spelling of cruise passenger names can be changed at just about any time during the process: before or after the deposit, even after the final payment. It’s imperative that your name on the reservation match your name on your travel documents, so if you notice at any point that your name is misspelled on your cruise documents, make sure to notify your travel agent immediately.

More than just a correction in spelling, many cruise lines will actually let you replace one passenger with someone else, up until about a week before sailing. If you’re scheduled to sail with someone and that person finds out she can’t go, you may be able to add another person to go in her place – just let your travel agent know as soon as possible so that she can make the necessary calls.

Cruising can be a little confusing*…but, it’s worth it! Working with a travel agent is a great way to navigate the complex waters and ensure that you have a great cruise vacation.

I book a lot of my clients on Royal Caribbean, and with good reason — I’m a frequent cruiser of the line myself, and because of my good experiences, I always feel comfortable recommending Royal’s wide variety of ships and itineraries.

I have to admit, though, some of Royal’s marketing strategies really drive me up the wall as a travel agent. For example, the popular “Kids Sail Free” promotion only applies to certain cruise sailings, not that you’d know that from the website.

Another popular promotion on the Royal site is the “BOGO” sale – Buy One Get One 50% off, or sometimes even 60% off. What a lot of people don’t know is that this discount is reflected in the price that you seen on Royal Caribbean’s website, and doesn’t add additional discounts to the prices that you see online.

These sales are confusing, to be sure! That’s another reason why it’s good to work with a travel agent: We can help you parse through all the marketing promotions and get the absolute best price for your cruise vacation (kids or no kids).

Now, don’t get me started on the pricing of Royal Caribbean’s drink packages…that’s another story (blog post) entirely….

I’m really excited to be organizing a group cruise next May on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas. This Oasis-class ship is due for a drydock and refurbishment in March 2020 and will have tons of new features added, as you can see in this video produced by the cruise line.

When booking opened for Allure’s summer sailings in the Mediterranean — roundtrip from Barcelona with stops in Spain, France, and Italy — I scooped up some cabins at the group pricing level, which offers a significant savings over the current pricing. For instance, the group’s interior cabin rate of $999 per person, including taxes and fees, saves over $300 per person over the current pricing from Royal Caribbean!

We also have some cabins available at the group pricing for the Central Park Balcony ($1242 per person) and Ocean View Balcony ($1412 per person). If these prices aren’t enough to tempt you, we’ll also be planning some fun group activities and excursions, which you’d be invited to participate in if you’re part of our group. (You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course…but as I wrote in a previous post, group cruises are great for a lot of reasons.)

You can contact me at cruises@lovetotravel.com if you’d like more info or to book one of these cabins. I hope you’ll join us!

I’ve been working as a cruise travel agent for about two years now, and I’ve learned that the process of talking with clients about potential vacations can go a lot more smoothly if they know what kind of information to give me. Based on my experience, here’s what your travel agent wants to know about you so she can help you book your perfect cruise:

When do you want to travel? But more than that, when CAN you travel? If you have kids in school (that you don’t want to take out of school), or if you have a restricted job like an accountant, I need to know that so I don’t waste our time with sailings that won’t work for you.

How flexible are you in your timing? Can you go last minute? It really helps for me to know where you live – for instance, I can tell you that trying to fly from Kansas City to south Florida in March is a fool’s errand – the tickets are outrageously expensive. But if you live in a place like North Carolina, like I do, and you don’t mind driving to the cruise ports in Florida (I don’t mind!), that’s helpful for me to know.

Are there any places you’ve been before or cruise lines that you’ve sailed on before? If so, tell me what you like and (especially) what you don’t like. If you don’t like the Bahamas, or the Southern Caribbean, makes sure you tell me that up front – even if you sort of like something, and you just aren’t sure that you want to do it again.

What’s your budget? Everyone hates this question, but honestly if you only want to spend about $5000 for your trip and I price you something that’s $10,000, it’s a waste of everyone’s time. If you want to (and it helps you feel better about spending lots of money), tell me how much you want to spend per person, per day, etc.

In your mind, what’s the ideal vacation? Is it relaxing or exciting? Do you want to try new foods and drink? Do you want to do daredevil things like rope courses and ziplines, or do you want to sit on a beach? For that matter, do you want a beach/island vacation, or a scenic one (Alaska, Norway), or a history one (Europe)?

Finally, the logistics. We can’t get you a quote unless we know how many cabins you need, how many people will be in each cabin, and what their ages are at the time of the sailing.

I’m going to ask you a lot of questions, inevitably, as we plan your vacation. But providing me with this information ahead of time will really help get the ball rolling on getting you hooked up with your dream vacation!

After a (longer than expected) work-induced hiatus from blogging, I finally sat down today to write one more blog post of 2018 – and set out some goals for blogging in 2019, so I can try to keep myself accountable.

Now that I’m back to work full-time as a college professor, and adding in a part-time gig as a travel agent booking cruises, I’ve found it pretty difficult to find time for the blog. But you know what? Plenty of the other wonderful cruise bloggers I’ve “met” over the past year have full-time jobs and more, and they manage to get it done. I need to do better – and in 2019, I will!

Post more of my cruise ship pictures, from 2018 and before. I put together a photo gallery of my pics from Norwegian Bliss and I could do so many more of these! I think I’m a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of pictures I have, to be honest!

Keep up with my 2019 travels. I’m excited to have three cruises planned already – a B2B Southern Caribbean from San Juan in January 2019, and a week-long trip on Allure of the Seas with my best friend in March 2019. I’ve been a little ambivalent about Royal Caribbean’s megaships in the past, so I’m eager to try the experience again and to see what my friend thinks of it, since she’s only been on smaller ships before.

I’m also looking to post on my Instagram account (@_nerdytraveler) more often. If you’re not doing so already, I hope you’ll follow me there and on Twitter (also @_nerdytravler). Happy cruising in 2019 and beyond!

Day 3 was our port stop in Nassau, which I’ve been to about four or five times in the last year. As a result, I wasn’t totally gung-ho to get off the ship right away, which made for a nice relaxing (and productive!) morning.

I woke up early and chugged a cup of coffee before heading to a 7 am class in the fitness center. (I told you I was one of those early-morning people!) The class was at the same time as our sail into Nassau, meaning that I would miss my opportunity to take some pictures, but that was ok. After the class ended around 8 am, I sat on the deck and drank a couple more cups of coffee before going back to my room to shower. It was a beautiful morning for Nassau, fairly cool and not nearly as humid as I was used to encountering at this stop, with some clouds keeping down the heat.

I spent the morning writing blog posts and enjoying the quiet of the ship. I’d heard from some frequent cruisers that many of them don’t even get off the ship in Nassau because they prefer to enjoy the day on board, and I can see why – the venues were uncrowded and the pool deck was fairly unoccupied. We were parked next to the Liberty of the Seas, an unusual sight to see in Nassau since this ship usually does Western Caribbean routes out of its home port of Galveston.

Around noon, I wrapped up my writing and headed to the Windjammer for some lunch. I had thought about trying out the Johnny Rockets on board, but decided instead to be healthy and opted for a big salad from Windjammer along with soup and a sandwich from the Compass Deli. (I understand that the Compass Deli might not survive the next round of refurbishments on Majesty, which are scheduled for early 2018, which is a shame!)

After lunch, I grabbed an ice-cream cone and lounged for a bit on the blissfully quiet pool deck. Around 2, I decided it was time to head into town, so I went down to the cabin and collected what I’d need for the day. The port in Nassau is incredibly convenient to the downtown area, and to make things even better, we were parked in the very closest berth to the terminal building. Without a crowd of departing cruisers to slow me down, it only took me about 10 minutes to go from my cabin on the ship to the main street in Nassau.

My first stop was my favorite place to go when I’m in port here: the Pirate Republic Brewery. Friends, I’m a bit of a beer snob, and I’m here to tell you that their brews are not just surprisingly good for a brewery in Nassau, they’re flat-out good, period. I started with a flight so that I could sample some of their new seasonals, then switched to my old standby, the Island Pirate Ale (IPA, get it?). I found a nice couple who were on the Liberty, and talked with them for a while as we drank our beers. I made a stop in the brewery’s excellent gift shop to bring back a present for the hubby, who didn’t get to make this trip with me.

It was getting a little late, but I decided to walk a little more around Nassau before heading back to the ship. I found myself at an Irish-themed bar called Shenanigans, which was near the end of Bay Street, the main shopping street. I found in talking to the bartender that they had only opened a few months ago, and the bar certainly had two important elements: good wifi and cold air conditioning. I paid a lot for my Guinness ($11!), but if wifi and a cool place to sit down are what you’re looking for, this is a good place to stop. (Just don’t get the Guinness – I think the other beers are cheaper.)

As I finished up my beer, I realized that it was nearly 5 pm – and my dinner time was a 6! Overall, I’ve enjoyed having the early dinner seating on this cruise, but it can cause one to adjust the schedule somewhat, especially on port days. I headed back to the ship, but there was only one problem – after all that beer, I was getting sleepy! I made a beeline for the Windjammer and filled up two water glasses all the way to the top with ice, then filled them with coffee. Hey, it’s not the best iced coffee ever, but it works! I happened to catch a lovely sunset on deck while I drank my iced coffee and listened to the reggae sounds of the house band.

After recharging, I got changed for dinner, then headed to the dining room. I stopped at a bar on the way to dinner to use one of my Crown and Anchor deals to buy one, get one free on a glass of wine for dinner. Well, two glasses of wine, to be honest – which I then proceeded to combine into one very full glass. I got a few looks from my dinner companions!

After dinner, I planned to visit the casino for a few minutes, then head up to a vantage point to watch our departure from Nassau. Well, as it turns out, I should have just skipped the casino entirely, because I wound up losing back all my winnings from the first night (and then some) – but there’s always today, haha! And to add insult to injury, we sailed away earlier than scheduled (that happens sometimes when all passengers have gotten back on board, especially for a late evening departure), and I missed that too. By the time I got up on deck, the lights of Nassau were just a speck in the distance off the back of the ship.

Oh well! I decided it was as good a time to any to head back to my cabin for the night. (It was definitely better than heading back to the casino!) I watched a bit of a basketball game on TV before turning in around 10 pm. Another early night, and no one to tease me about it. I was thrilled!

When we boarded the ship, we found out that the tour we had originally purchased, called “Hemingway’s Havana,” was cancelled and we would have to find an alternate tour. Although we were disappointed, the tour we chose as its replacement, “Old Havana City Sightseeing,” was a more than suitable replacement.

The buses we boarded for the roughly 3-hour tour were very nice – comfortable, cool, and with a more than serviceable bathroom. It even had toilet paper! (We were reminded frequently that this is not usually the case in Cuba.)

Our tour gave us a great introduction to Havana. We stopped at a cemetery, at a cigar store, at the Christ of Havana statue, and at a local crafts market. It was a nice combination of riding around (in the air-conditioned comfort of the bus) and walking around to take pictures and learn more about Havana and Cuba.

We finished the tour around 1:30 pm, which left us plenty of time, before our 7:30 all aboard call, in which we could explore the area around the port. We started by walking away from the port down a narrow street. We wound up stopping at a restaurant about two or three blocks away where I had Ropa Vieja, a traditional Cuban dish (being from North Carolina, I described it as “Cuban BBQ”), and the hubby had garlic shrimp. We tried one of the local beers, Bucanero. (In researching this blog I found some fascinating background on Cuba’s national beers here.)

Emboldened by our beers, we started walking further into Havana. It was then that I learned one of the best pieces of advice I can give to people visiting Havana – follow your ears. We heard some fantastic Cuban music coming out of a tiny bar and decided to go in and check it out. We had some rum drinks – a daiquiri for me, a mojito for him – and danced to the music as best we could in the available space (not much).

We walked on and found ourselves in the Plaza Vieja, a lively square where we stayed a bit to watch some street performers. I had decided that I wanted to take us to the “Museo del Ron” (Museum of Rum), and so we walked a route based on the map we’d been given. (Better PDF versions to come, but for now you can view the maps below.)

We had been told that you can change foreign currency for CUCs at hotels, and given that we were getting low on cash, I decided we should do this. We stopped at a hotel and asked about changing our pounds for Cuban currency. The desk clerk agreed to do this, but she said somewhat apologetically that she wouldn’t be able to give us as good an exchange rate. To me, that was fine – at that part of the day, it was pretty much a convenience fee. I exchanged 100 pounds for 110 CUCs.

It turned out that the so-called “rum museum” was really an attraction created by the local rum, Havana Club. It took up several buildings and featured a pretty little courtyard with a small bar where you could buy rum drinks. We tried a couple and even had a drink made with rum and freshly squeezed sugarcane juice! We were getting ready to leave when we heard a band playing in the complex’s bar, where they served all of the Havana Club products. We were convinced to stay for another drink and some more fun Cuban music. We stayed until the band finished its set and walked on.

Once we made it to the end of the day, I was longing for the A/C on that cool tour bus. Although most have plenty of ceiling fans, there’s little air conditioning in the bars and restaurants in Old Havana. My advice is to dress in cool clothing and just be prepared to be hot and sweaty – try not to let it bother you. I can guarantee you’re not the only one.

After we left the Havana Club/Museo del Ron, we thought we might head straight back to the ship. But we passed by a restaurant with an invitingly breezy patio and decided to have a seat. Turns out we were at a Harley Davidson motorcycle bar! I believe the place was called Café Ciclo but unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, and to be honest I had had a LOT of rum at this point. Some fun decor made this an easily identifiable place on the same street as the Museo del Ron:

{{pictures to come}}

We had a snack and a big bottle of water, and I tried the other local beer (Cristal), while we cooled off and prepared to head back to the ship.

My day in Havana definitely left me wanting more. I can’t wait to come back on a cruise with an overnight stop or even fly in for a couple of days. Soon!

Who Is the Nerdy Traveler?

Hi, I’m Jessalynn! In 2017, I started this blog to share my love of cruising and other travel and give tips to other travelers. I’m also training as a travel agent to book cruises. Visit my web site at http://www.thenerdytraveler.com for more!